Summary Paver

What we enjoyed about the book:

• Light reading (in a positive sense), pacing / flow of narrative worked smoothly
• Setting was the best –> creepy atmosphere, sense of place, “lonely”, “abandoned”, worked together in the end
• Creepy sensation
• Well researched, small details impressive
• Not infodumping with historical trivia and detail
• Dogs ❤
• Progression of how attitudes changed: dogs, place
• Relatable: alone, thinking somebody is outside, looking out of the window, trying to see who is there
• Reading it made me too feel haunted, hunted, like Jack
• Psychological horror well done, thrilled, “sucked me in”, goosebumps, one person glad they finished reading in the afternoon
• Relatable main character
• Narrative choices + format worked really well, but also took away from the suspense (he wrote all of this down, so he needs to be alive in the end)
• “Very gay and I loved it”, subtle though
• Queer infatuation also gave Jack a reason to stay, he craved validation
• Foreshadowing well done
• Interesting connections to R.L. Stevenson

What we discussed:

• Horror could have been weirder, could’ve been more Lovecraftian
• Imbalanced relationship with Gus, idealisation
• Not creepy to everyone, ghost moments handled very well, not a very original ghost tale
• Atmosphere and setting great, but not invested in the expedition or the characters
• Jack being fatphobic made us uncomfortable
• Villain is a victim –> problematic
• Ending frustrating, confession of love did not work out 😦
• Killing the gays terrible
• “I hate bad endings”
• Ending too fast, pacing off, resolve way too quickly
• We would’ve liked to know more after the ending, what happened to the place?
• “It wasn’t scary enough”, beginning too slow, more scary stuff please
• Conflict with the ghost did not feel resolved, classic ghost story move but we do not like it
• Bleakness of the ending both fitting and frustrating
• “Not 100% my jam”
• Jack annoying protagonist
• Jack the only really developed character –> part of the problem why we did not like most of the other characters –> narrative situation explains that sorta

Rating:

• 4/5 knives, “I felt entertained, I felt scared, I was rooting for the love story, I would pick up another book by the author”
• 4/5 “did a good job, I enjoyed it, it is not really my genre”, gave back the audiobook because it does not work a second time
• 3/5 cute doggos, “I enjoyed the book for the atmosphere and for the setting, I felt like I was in that place”
• 2.75/5 “really out of my comfort zone”, “I still enjoyed it, took me a while to get into”, “too slow in the beginning”
• 8/10 as a ghost story, 6/10 overall: “good ghost story, just okay for me”
• 3.5/5 “not my genre”, “worked”, “picked up in the end”
• 4/5 husky dogs, “really like ghost stories, this one did a good job at creeping me out”, being stuck somewhere alone reminded the person of lockdown fears, “very enjoyable read”
• 4/5 “creeped me out reading late at night”

Other books we talked about:

• If you enjoyed “Dark Matter”, you will enjoy “Thin Air” (expedition into the Himalaya) + “Wakenhyrst” (doom!)
• “Wheel of Time” finished (14 books): 5/5 stars, makes the entire series worth reading
• “The Sound at the End” by Kirsty Logan: queer Arctic horror, full audiobook ensemble, wonderful
• Polk’s sequel to “Witchmark”, queer, very enjoyable, “Midnight Bargain” by the same author, love interest reminding of “The Watchmaker of Filigree Street” by Pulley
• “The Shining” by Stephen King: psychological horror, “really worked for me, really creeped me out”
• “The Dragon Republic” by RF Kuang, second book in the Poppy Wars Series; “amazing series”, realistic take on warfare and strategy; historical dimension interesting, grim-dark
• Ted Chiang short story collection “Exhalation”: philosophy, Philip K Dick, non-paranoid version of PKD, great short stories, “really relaxing collection”
• “The once and future witches”: “really love the concept”, bit like “Midnight Bargain”, witchcraft is illegal, political dimension used well, queer 🙂
• Kowal “Calculating Stars” #2: scifi in 50s, “I like my scifi realistic”, very enjoyable, sexism bit hard to stomach, smart
• “Mountains of Madness” recommendable especially after “Dark Matter” –> expeditions gone wrong